Decreased Macular Choriocapillaris Perfusion Correlates with Contrast Sensitivity Function in Dry Age-related Macular Degeneration.

PURPOSE: To investigate the relationships between contrast sensitivity (CS), choriocapillaris perfusion and other structural optical coherence tomography (OCT) biomarkers in dry age-related macular degeneration (AMD). DESIGN: Cross-sectional, observational study. PARTICIPANTS: One hundred AMD eyes (22 early, 52 intermediate and 26 late) from 74 patients and 45 control eyes from 37 age-similar subjects. METHODS: All participants had visual acuity (VA) assessment, quantitative contrast sensitivity function (qCSF) testing, macular OCT, and 6x6-mm swept-source OCT angiography (OCTA) scans on the same day. OCT volumes were analyzed for subretinal drusenoid deposits and hyporeflective drusen cores, and to measure thickness of the outer nuclear layer (ONL). OCTA scans were utilized to calculate drusen volume, inner choroid flow deficit percentage (IC-FD%), and to measure the area of choroidal hypertransmission defects (HTD). IC-FD% was measured from a 16 µm-thick choriocapillaris slab after compensation and binarization with Phansalkar's method. Generalized linear mixed-effects models were used to evaluate the associations between functional and structural variables. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES: To explore the associations between qCSF-measured CS, ICFD% and various AMD imaging biomarkers. RESULTS: AMD exhibited significantly reduced qCSF metrics eyes across all stages compared to controls. Univariate analysis revealed significant associations between various imaging biomarkers, reduced qCSF metrics and VA in both groups. Multivariate analysis confirmed that higher IC-FD% in the central 5 mm was significantly associated with decreases in all qCSF metrics in AMD eyes (ß= -0.74 to -0.25, all p<0.05), but not with VA (p>0.05). ONL thickness in the central 3 mm correlated with both VA (ß= 2.85, p<0.001) and several qCSF metrics (ß= 0.01-0.90, all p<0.05), especially in AMD eyes. Further, larger HTD areas were associated with decreased VA (ß=-0.89, p<0.001) and reduced CS at low-intermediate frequencies across AMD stages (ß= -0.30 to -0.29, p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: The significant association between IC-FD% in the central 5 mm and qCSF-measured CS reinforces the hypothesis that decreased macular choriocapillaris perfusion contributes to visual function changes in AMD, which are more pronounced in CS than in VA.

Use of right colon vaginoplasty in gender affirming surgery: proposed advantages, review of technique, and outcomes.

INTRODUCTION: Various methods have been described to create a functional neovagina with feminizing (male-to-female) gender affirming surgery. Intestinal vaginoplasty using ileal or colon segments confers natural mucus production and greater canal depth with primary vaginoplasty. In this work we describe an alternative approach to primary and salvage vaginoplasty using right colon. We focus on relative advantages compared to use of other bowel segments, and we review patient outcomes. METHODS: Transgender women who had previously undergone primary vaginoplasty underwent laparoscopic right colon vaginoplasty at our center between 12/2017 and 7/2019. Demographic, medical, outcome, and satisfaction data was collected and retrospectively reviewed. RESULTS: Twenty-two consecutive transgender women patients underwent laparoscopic right colon vaginoplasty. Mean age was 39.3 years. There were two intraoperative complications:1 injury of the ileocolic pedicle, and 1 minor bladder injury. Four of 22 patients (18.2%) had short-term complications (< 30 days): 3 had postoperative ileus/small bowel obstruction and 1 had intra-abdominal hemorrhage. All were managed conservatively. Six of 22 patients (27.3%) experienced a total of 14 long-term complications (> 30 days): 1 developed Crohn's (not involving the neovagina); 1 developed late small bowel obstruction (SBO) (managed conservatively); 5 developed neovagina prolapse; 4 developed stenosis (2 at the vaginal introitus, and 2 had extrinsic obstruction at the recto-vaginal junction (all underwent successful laparoscopic surgical correction); and 3 were diagnosed with diversion neovaginitis (all treated conservatively). All complications were successfully treated with conservative and/or surgical intervention. All (100%) patients reported satisfaction with neovagina function and appearance. CONCLUSION: This is the only outcomes series of transgender women patients who have undergone right colon vaginoplasty, to date. Our study finding suggests that laparoscopic right colon for primary or salvage vaginoplasty has several important advantages over use of Sigmoid colon or Ileum, and is a reliable technique whose complications can be managed successfully, with favorable, satisfactory long-term outcomes.

Adenosquamous carcinoma: An aggressive histologic sub-type of colon cancer with poor prognosis.

BACKGROUND: Studies have reported worse overall survival (OS) for adenosquamous carcinoma (ASC) compared to adenocarcinoma (AC) of the colon, but none have analyzed a national dataset for over 30 years. METHODS: The National Cancer Database was queried from 2004 to 2016 for patients with ASC and AC of the colon. Kaplan-Meier survival analysis was performed to assess OS. Descriptive variables were evaluated using independent T-test and Chi-square analyses. RESULTS: 332 ASC patients were compared to 496,950 AC patients. AC patients were older than ASC patients (68.6 vs. 64.4 years); p < 0.001. Most ASC cancers presented with stage IV (41.3%) and poorly-differentiated disease (57.5%) compared to AC (22.4% and 17.7%). OS of the ASC cohort was 13.9 months. Median OS for stage IV AC versus stage IV ASC was significantly better (14.1 vs. 8.0 months); p < 0.0001. CONCLUSION: This is the largest national database study to compare ASC with AC. Our findings confirm that unlike AC, ASC most frequently presents late stage, as poorly-differentiated lesions, and have worse OS.

Learning curve in robotic colorectal surgery.

With the rapid adoption of robotics in colorectal surgery, there has been growing interest in the pace at which surgeons gain competency, as it may aid in self-assessment or credentialing. Therefore, we sought to evaluate the learning curve of an expert laparoscopic colorectal surgeon who performed a variety of colorectal procedures robotically. This is a retrospective review of a prospective database of 111 subsequent colorectal procedures performed by a single colorectal surgeon. The cumulative summation technique (CUSUM) was used to construct a learning curve for robotic proficiency by analyzing total operative and console times. Postoperative outcomes including length of stay, 30-day complications, and 30-day readmission rates were evaluated. Chi-square and one-way ANOVA (including Kruskal-Wallis) tests were used to evaluate categorical and continuous variables. Our patient cohort had a mean age of 62.4, mean BMI of 26.9, and mean ASA score of 2.41. There were two conversions to open surgery. The CUSUM graph for console time indicated an initial decrease at case 13 and another decrease at case 83, generating 3 distinct performance phases: learning (n = 13), competence (n = 70), and mastery (n = 28). An interphase comparison revealed no significant differences in age, gender, BMI, ASA score, types of procedures, or indications for surgery between the three phases. Over the course of the study, both mean surgeon console time and median length of stay decreased significantly (p = 0.00017 and p = 0.016, respectively). Although statistically insignificant, there was a downward trend in total operative time and postoperative complication rates. Learning curves for robotic colorectal surgery are commonly divided into three performance phases. Our findings contribute to the construction of a reliable learning curve for the transition of colorectal surgeons to robotics. Furthermore, they may help guide the stepwise training and credentialing of new robotic surgeons.